On-line personalized radio service has demonstrated its appeal to music fans as evidenced by the continued growth of personalized radio service providers such as Pandora, LastFM and Slacker. These providers assemble personalized playlists for users by accessing a large music library where each song has a metadata field containing ratings on multiple stylistic parameters. A user inputs a preferred music style, and the provider's system extracts songs from the library for the playlist based on correlation to the song metadata field. Advantageously, users are provided with the capability to accelerate their discovery of new content which is largely aligned with their personal preferences, by skipping over content in the playlist which the user finds uninteresting. In mobile environments, these existing on-line music services require development of new user interface (UI) designs and are complicated for users to understand. For example, vehicles are provided with some type of USB or other auxiliary port or interface for connecting an iPod or other portable computing device or memory device (e.g., a connector, port, adapter, multimedia interface or dongle) and/or an upgraded head unit, and customized screens for the device and/or head unit display to allow users to enter their preferences and otherwise search for content and navigate received content. Use of such screens on portable device and/or head unit displays is distracting for mobile users (e.g., while driving). A need therefore exists for a simplified user interface that allows a mobile user to be exposed to different content with minimal distraction.
Receiving broadcast content via a radio receiver device can be a simpler means for obtaining content for playback than an online music service. For example, satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) offers many more than 100 channels of audio content, and advances in audio compression and transmission technology is increasing this number all the time. Existing user interfaces for receiving SDARS or other transmitted radio programming, however, typically only support 5 or 6 readily available preset buttons. In some cases, a user interface is provided with two or three “banks” of presets, along with a method for switching among the banks of presets. Navigating to other channels not stored as presets requires entering numbers in a keypad, by rotating a dial, or pressing a tune-up/tune-down button, which can be inconvenient and distracting.
In addition, with existing radio receiver hardware, a user is limited to listening to one channel at a time and therefore misses the opportunity to be exposed to content simultaneously broadcast on other program channels. Further, individual channels may be generated from a somewhat limited song playlist according to the channel specifications of the programming center or content provider (e.g., a classic rock channel that is generated from a playlist of a preselected number of songs). A user typically “channel surfs” or listens to what is being played on other program channels by frequently changing the channel on the radio receiver. This user behavior often results in an unsatisfactory listening experience since the user is having to frequently operate a user control button or dial. Commonly owned U.S. Published Patent Application No. 200903220075 addresses this shortcoming by proposing a satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS)-based personal radio service that provides the user with an option to be exposed to content simultaneously broadcast on multiple channels selected for building a personalized radio channel playlist. This personal radio service, however, requires changes to the user interface (e.g., vehicle SDARS radio receiver) such as additional buttons and more active user participation to select and filter buffered content.
As stated above, satellite radio offers more than 100 channels of audio content. After initially exploring the content offering, subscribers typically narrow their listening choices to 10 or fewer favorite channels, which may be any combination of music and talk channels. For example, a subscriber may prefer listening to popular music and may preset 5 or 6 popular music channels on the radio, along with a comedy channel and news channel. With present radio receiver hardware, the subscriber is limited to listening to one channel at a time and therefore misses the opportunity to be exposed to content simultaneously broadcast on the other favorite channels. A need therefore exists for a SDARS or similar transmitted programming service that provides the subscriber with an option to be exposed to content simultaneously broadcast on multiple channels selected for building a personalized radio channel playlist.
A need therefore also exists for a simple user interface for a SDARS or similar transmitted programming-based radio service (or other transmitted content service with Program Associated Data or other data or means to distinguish transitions between content segments or songs) that allows a user to playback a blended mix of content from two or more program channels based on the selection of a single preset button on a radio receiver user interface.
In addition, conventional personalized radio services such as Pandora lack the advantages of exposing users to diverse and professionally curated content delivered by a program service such as a SDARS. For example, SDARS provides a multitude of program channels covering a different types of content (e.g., different genres of music such as rock, country, jazz, classical, among others, a variety of different program channels within each music genre, as well as news, sports, comedy and other types of programming) that is continually researched, discovered, updated and curated (e.g., with disk jockey or “DJ” commentary) by programmers who are knowledgeable with that particular type of content. A need therefore exists for a radio service that is broadcast, streamed or otherwise transmitted to provide updated content and a spontaneous listening experience with greater opportunity for exposure to new music and other types of content. Further, a need exists for a live satellite or streamed radio offering with low cost hardware that does not require a large local song database to be built over time at a receiver to enable exposure to content simultaneously transmitted on multiple channels.
Conventional personalized radio services such as Pandora and Slacker enable users to set up different playlists for different genre preferences such as alternative, classical and comedy, but do not provide the capability to mix diverse personal content preferences into a single playlist. For example, conventional personalized radio services do not carry non-music tracks or segments (e.g., comedy tracks) which some users might like in a mixed or blended channel playlist. A need exists for a transmitted programming service that allows the subscriber to select from among the diverse content channels simultaneously transmitted in a programming stream to build a personalized radio channel playlist from both music channels and talk channels (e.g., comedy channels), the content of which is not typically provided in the online libraries of conventional personalized radio service providers. A need also exists to expose users to diverse preferred content in a single continuous playlist without requiring manual interaction or forethought to change playlists or channels.